Tijuana, Mexico, July 17, 2009 – Chinese Taipei scored a major upset by defeating China in a five-set thriller by score of 20-25, 25-13, 25-15, 13-25, 16-14 and thus keeping alive its hope of advancing to the main bracket of the competition.

China led 8-4 and 16-9 at the two technical time-outs of the first set while dominating their opponents with good blocking and better overall performance. Skilled Sun Mingjian and Li Weiwei led the offensive parade. Chinese Taipei had a strong reaction led by Captain Chen Wang Ting and came close to a three-point distance but China didn’t panic and took the set 25-20.

Spikers Chen Wang Tin and Cheng Shih Ting enjoyed red-hot start in the second set sending Chinese Taipei to 8-4 and 16-6 leads at the technical stops. They didn’t stop and continued their march and easily won the second set 25-13, capped by a spiked from Li Weiwei.

In the third set, Liu Xiaotong and Zhang Yicham’s attacks gave China an 8-6 lead. But then it was show time again for Chinese Taipei, winners of 10 of the next 12 points for a 16-10 lead with the two Chens leading the explosive offense accompanied by resilient defense. The girls from Taipei continued with a flurry of spikes and touching most of the balls at the net and ended up winning the third by score of 25-15.

China took the lead in the fourth set at 8-6. Liu helped to stretch the lead to 12-7 with a pair of spikes and the girls from the continent went to the second stop leading the scoreboard 16-10. China elevated its wall in the fourth set and finished with two blocks from Sun Mingjian and Liu for a 25-13 win.

Zhang and Li Aitong started the tie-breaker with spike and block to put China in front 2-0, but Chen Shih Ting tied-up at 4-4 for Chinese Taipei with two spikes and one ace. Consecutive kills by Sun Mingjian gave back China a 7-5 lead and Li Weiwei stretched to 10-5 with three straight aces. Taipei did not give up and kept fighting back and closed the distance to 13-11. One touch by Chen Shih Ting put her side within one point at 13-12 and Cheng Wang Ting served one ace to tied up at 13-all. One spike by Chen Shih Ting followed by a reception fault of China decided the set 16-14 and the match in favor of Chinese Taipei.